


Mal Voyage

by dracoangelica



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Identity Reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-01
Updated: 2016-05-21
Packaged: 2018-06-05 13:39:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Underage
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6706531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dracoangelica/pseuds/dracoangelica
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When an akuma situation causes Marinette and Adrien to miss their train, they are finally forced to spend time together. But will their secrets keep them apart? Being a superhero isn't easy when you're a teenager.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story was inspired by an article I read about European teens. It's common for students to take a solo trip abroad when they're 15-17. I decided to follow what could happen if Marinette and her classmates took such a trip. All characters are 15-16 in this story.

            The zoo was on fire, and it was all the Akuma’s fault. Ladybug had left the train station 15 minutes ago and if they didn’t wrap this up, she was going to miss her first solo abroad holiday! It was as if Hawkmoth knew exactly when he wasn’t invited and capitalized. Asshole.

            The smoke from the fires made the air thick and visibility difficult. The air smelled like the underside of a toilet and she wondered if she’d ever forget such a terrible stench. She and Chat had been shouting warnings as they bounced around Hawkmoth’s latest victim. From what she could gather, someone in the primate section of the zoo had been embarrassed over he new Gorilla display. The akumatized trinket seemed to be a bracelet, from what they could see of it. What was once a mild-mannered veterinarian now was as big as a car and rampaging around cages and buildings and ruining what should have been her vacation.

            “On your left, Ladybug!” Chat knocked a flaming ball of something heinous out of the way as he called out the warning. She returned the favor by swinging her yo-yo into a shield for the debris that spilled over, knocking it into a concrete retaining wall. <i>Splat.</i>

            “What is it? Napalm?” She wrinkled her nose from the noxious fumes.

            “Worse,” he crouched next to her on a light pole in the Paris zoo. “I think it’s… um,” she looked at where he was pointing with his baton. The gorilla-man was knocking over concession stands and sending both children and their frazzled parents fleeing. When she got the call, she thought it had been their first zookeeper victim, re-akumatized, but no, he wasn’t changing forms and animals. Thank goodness for small favors. The gorilla man flailed dark-fur covered arms, breaking booths, benches and anything in his path, large canines wide and dripping as he screamed out threats. Then she saw it. Gorillaman reached behind himself and scooped up…

            “Oh no,” Fire lit in the Gorilla’s hand, “That…that’s just not right.”

Chat and Ladybug moved in a fluid motion, springing away from their perch as the flaming poo bomb took out both the light pole and the zebra’s retaining fence behind it. The zebras screamed and ran, adding more chaos to the courtyard of fleeing Parisians.

            “Are you feeling lucky?” Chat said as he bounced off half of a concession stand roof. The other half was steaming with the dying flames of the bomb. “I don’t think this guy is done with his monkey business.” She rolled her eyes.

            “Flaming monkey poo and now we also have puns. How could this day get any better?” The gorilla-akuma answered her rhetorical question with another volley of flaming poo. She thought he was talking, but then she realized he was just growling out about getting her Miraculous stone or he’d blah blah blah. Like that wasn’t something she’d heard before. She jumped to her feet, and threw her hand up, casting the Lucky spell, praying that this time, the magic gave her something useful to fight the giant gorilla.

            Chat raised his brows at her and her…stuffed ladybug toy. She scowled at it and then they were both obliged to dodge out of the way of yet another oncoming poop bomb.

            “Why doesn’t that thing ever give you something handy?” Chat swung by, using his pole as a vault to dodge the giant feces bombs. “Because death by flaming monkey poo is NOT cool, you know!” He bounded once, twice, and a third time, calling, “In fact it’s really shi--”

            “Distract it!” She snapped, back flipping as she began to gain ground on big and ugly. The countdown was on and the last thing that she wanted was to be stuck as Marinette with no weapons against death by poop. Doubtless, no matter how much she washed, she’d never get <i>Eau de flambe merde</i> out of her hair.

            Ladybug grit her teeth as she looked down at the stuffed toy and then around her.

How the heck had she ended up here? She was supposed to be leaving for her first holiday this week. Her first trip in her LIFE without her parents. Still, if she hurried, maybe she could catch the train. The train! She turned her head and as if summoned, the little zoo train came chugging down the small tracks. It activated her ‘bug vision’. She saw the tall tower blowing steam and the tracks turned red with black spots, all the way towards the giant, screaming monkey. She gritted her teeth and then ran.

            In one fluid movement, Ladybug wrapped her yoyo around the stuffed ladybug, locking it tight.  She swung it like a pendulum at her side, then set the toy on fire from a simmering pile of offal. She bounced off the side of a wall, then ran, jumping and landing on the engine. With a twist of her hip, she kicked the throttle up, slamming the kiddy train into overdrive.

            It revved, moving from a sedate shuffle to a high speed ram. She dropped the fiery ladybug into the engine and leapt off, just in time for Chat to trip the akuma’d gorilla right into its path.

            The collision was explosive, the Akuma screaming and falling hard when the little train hit. He threw his arms out and the heavy iron cuff around his arm flew up, rolling to her feet.

            Ladybug smashed it into pieces and with a twist of her wrist, had the evil butterfly caught and purified.

            Chat landed beside her when she threw the remains of the flaming ladybug up into the air activating the power of creation that let her right the wrongs Akuma committed while on the loose. The power was truly a miracle, as the smell she was sure she’d remember for the rest of her life disappeared. She leaned back, hands on her hips, satisfied that the zoo was back to its proper order.

            “That was a train of thought I’m glad you followed,” Chat said, bumping her fist with a wink. She rolled her eyes and swallowed with sudden terror as she saw the clock in the center. Her earrings blinked.

            Three minutes until she lost her transformation and even worse, 10 minutes before her train left for Brussels…a train station that was a good hour away by bus.

            “I’d love to chat… cat,” she said backing up. “But I’m going to be late so… until next time!”

            He smirked at her and gave her a mock serious salute when she took off.

            Ladybug made it as far as the downtown underground before her transformation vanished and the taxi got Marinette to the train station… just in time to see the 3’clock to Brussels leaving.

            Without her.

            Marinette groaned, leaning against a post in the Nord. Her phone dinged and Alya demanded in text message to know where in the heck she was.

            She sighed, moving and plopping onto a bench as she typed out a response.

            “Damn it,” muttered a familiar voice next to her head. She jerked her gaze up and her fingers felt numb on her keyboard.

            “A-A-Adrien!” she bleated, accidently sending Alya a disjointed and misspelled text. He looked down and gave her a heart-pounding lovely smile. His face perfection. His teeth were white and straight. His clothes always fell just ‘so’ on his lean and sexy frame. She loved how his hair fell over his eyes and she wondered, idly, if the cologne that she sometimes smelled on him was the same one that he was always holding in his bus stop ads. It reminded her vaguely of cheese.

            His lips were beautiful too as they moved. Moved? Oh crap he was talking.

            “—and then I looked up and it was gone,” he rubbed his head ruefully.

            Her phone vibrated in her hand she looked down, grateful to stop staring. Alya, clever girl that she was, had just sent her a schedule.

            “Um, where are you going?” she asked, feeling nervous all over again at successfully stringing together a complete sentence.

            Without invitation, he plopped down on the bench beside her.

            “Brussels,” he said, leaning one hand back behind him. “Jagged Stone is having a concert.”

            Her face? Cherry red. She also was going to that concert. Jagged Stone was playing a tour and she and Alya had pooled their cash. Between her earnings in the family bakery and Alya’s ad revenue from the Ladyblog, they’d had enough for their first holiday abroad.

            Only just as she’d been about to get aboard, the Akuma had attacked.

            “Alya says that um, there is another train coming.”

            Adrien nodded then stood, stretching. “Guess we don’t have much of a choice, do we?” he said, that good natured smile on his face. “Hey, will you sit with me? I was supposed to wait for Nino, but…well,” he waved a hand. “He got on with Alya.”

            She nodded, face as red as her costume.

            Wait? An entire train ride with Adrien? Maybe her luck was turning.

            Adrien beamed and did something on his phone, then flashed the app at her.

            “There. Why don’t we sit together?”

            He leaned back on the bench, his arm stretching out along the length, and as a consequence, it was resting behind Marinette’s head. He kept glancing over at the entrance to train station and then back towards the train.

            “Um, waiting for someone?” Marionette asked, suddenly afraid that she’d see Chloe walking down the way with some poor porter over loaded with her expensive bags, all the while waving obnoxiously…

            He blinked then smiled at her, his hand moving from behind her to rest in his lap. She cursed that he’d moved it.

            “Nothing like that… it’s just that, well,” he rubbed his neck, as if to cover the creeping blush that was making its way down his skin. “I’m half-afraid my dad will change his mind about this trip.”

            Marinette tilted her head. “What? But, I’m sure you’ve been all sorts of places! Brussels isn’t that far-“

            He waved a hand as if to erase her words.

            “No, it’s not that. It’s the… well, usually I have a bodyguard with me. I had to work really hard to get him to let me go alone. I was supposed to meet Chloe and I know that since I was late, she might cause some trouble.”

            The words shattered whatever hope Marinette had kindled.

            “You… you were going on Holiday with Chloe?” She would not be upset. Chloe was clearly still his friend.

            He nodded, oblivious to her distress. “Yeah, her dad wanted someone to watch out for her.” He grinned over at Marinette as if this was the finest joke. “As if Chloe needed someone to watch out for her.” He sniggered. Absently, Marinette remembered all the times that Chloe had been the victim of an akuma-infected creature. She never cowered, just screamed out demands from whatever bondage they’d put her in. Privately, Marinette thought anyone who kidnapped Chloe would pay her father to take her back.

            “I’m sure Chloe just wanted to spend time alone with you,” she murmured, sure that the rattling of the oncoming train was too loud to let her bitterness be heard. Adrien cast her a quizzical head tilt and she turned, smiling, stuffing her jealousy down into the back of her mind. Despite whatever Chloe had plotted, she was here with Adrien, and she wasn’t going to let the specter of her constant rival shadow this victory.

            When the train passed, Adrien spoke, eyes still making a steady pacing motion, watching those around them.

            “She’s unpleasant, true. But I understand her. She’s lonely.”

            Marinette diplomatically did NOT snort.

            “She’s rude, cruel and petty,” she replied, unable to help the dry tone. “She drives people away.”

            Adrien stretched his arm back out as the counter next to the train rattled out the estimated time for the next arrival. She schooled her face so he couldn’t see how much it thrilled her. They only had a few more minutes to wait.

            “When you grow up like we did, sometimes people only want to get close to you because of what you can give them. Chloe knows that, I, at least, have no interest in her money or fame. Got plenty of my own.”

            Marinette had been in his massive room. It was almost as big as her house.

            Marinette shook her head and pulled her purse into her lap. Inside Tikki was sleeping off the exertion of being Ladybug. “I think it’s because you make her look good Adrien.”

            Adrien’s eyes rested across the tracks onto a huge splash ad for a cologne that was being sold at boutiques everywhere.

            “That’s a feeling I’m used to,” he said, closing his eyes and leaned his head back. Marinette blushed and looked away, his perfect face too much to handle for her poor hormones in that moment.

            “Why did you miss the train, Marinette?”

            Panic.

            <i>“Oh,” she thought frantically, “You know, saving Paris. Same old, same old.”</i>

            She swallowed.

            “Um, I forgot my purse in the taxi. It… had my ticket.”

            She reached blindly into her purse and pulled out the travel documents. It wasn’t technically a lie… she might have left her luggage onto the train but her purse always transformed with her. Which, all things considered, was lucky.

            Adrien stopped her from waving them by catching her wrist and turning the ticket so he could look. She felt the heat of his thumb on her pulse and wondered idly if he’d notice her melting onto the tracks from his touch.

            “Ah! This is the hotel that Chloe and I were staying at.” He grinned up at her. <i>‘Breathe’</i> she reminded herself, inhaling before gently pulling her arm away, hoping that the flush over her nose wasn’t too bright.

            “Looks like we had the same idea,” she said. “But, you know, I bet Alya and I aren’t in the penthouse or anything,” she chuckled.

            “Penthouses aren’t everything. They make you wait longer for an elevator.” And then, he winked.

            Maybe missing her first train hadn’t been a disaster after all.

#

            “Oh my god,” Alya breathed, sitting up straight next to Nino. He paused the movie that he’d had on his laptop, and pulled the earbud out.

            “What?”

            She grinned and shrugged. “Eh, um… Marinette is on the following train. With… her crush.” She smiled and her fingers flew over the screen but she tilted it away before Nino could get a good look. He rolled his eyes and looked back down at the screen.

            “One of these days, I wish you’d tell me who she likes so much.”

            She shook her head, putting the phone back into her bag. “Best friend vault. No secrets from me, Nino.”

            He wrapped an arm around her and grinned. “More time alone at least.”

            Alya blushed and then looked over at the screen, putting the earbud back in.

#

            When the snack cart came by, Marinette looked up from her phone to see Adrien buy a round of Cabernet cheese. But no crackers.

            “You like it plain?” She asked, raising a brow. Adrien’s face froze, as if he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t have.

            “Oh! Yeah, uh, it’s my favorite.” He said, shoving the cardboard round into his jacket.

            Marinette covered her mouth with a hand.

            “What?”

            She shrugged, amused. “I just would have thought you’d like something less…common?”

            He frowned, crossing his arms defensively as he leaned back into the seat opposite of her. “What’s wrong with common?”

            She waved a hand. “Oh, nothing! Just, you know, everyone eats that. I pegged you for a winnemere or a beaufort d’ete type of guy. Something really fancy.”

            Adrien pulled his phone out and scrolled through it, a soft blush on his nose. “I like eating the things everyone else eats, you know.” His eyes were locked onto the screen, nose still red.

            She paused, remembering.

            “That’s right, you never went to a regular school until this year. Do you like it?”

            Adrien glanced up, smiling. “Well yeah! It’s so boring to be at home all the time.” He dropped his phone into his lap and looked out the window. The setting sun from the west gave his skin a beautiful patina of gold and purple shadows. Marinette swallowed. He looked like a painting; deep in thought. Her mouth opened and before she could think about it, she said, “Do you like anyone Adrien?”

            She bit her lips closed, and froze when he turned to look at her, his cheeks red.

            “Um!” he said, before rubbing the back of his hair, eyes on floor. “Sort of. Yeah.”

            Her heart sank.

            Cracked.

            Crumbled into a fine settling of dust at the bottom of her feet.

            “Oh.” She looked out the window, forbidding herself to be upset. She tightened her grip around her phone. Striving to keep her voice even she asked, “Does she…like you back?”

            He coughed, and shrugged, crossing his arms again. “Um, no. Unfortunately, I don’t think she feels the same way.”

            Unfairness mingled with her broken heart. And curiosity. Who was it that Adrien liked who didn’t like him back? It was world shifting/earth shattering news. Sympathy bloomed despite her disappointment.

            “It really hurts to like someone who doesn’t feel the same way,” she said softly, her thumb rubbing slow circles on her phone.

            He shrugged.

            “Well, I tried to tell her once. It ah… didn’t go well.”

            She cocked her head, curious.

            “She rejected you?” Marinette found it impossible to believe that. She envied this girl. She had to be someone impressive for Adrien to like. It couldn’t have been Chloe, or he would have said before now. But who was he around that he was so impressed with? A fellow model?

            He waved a hand again. “Nothing like that.” He crossed and uncrossed his legs before stretching them out, linked at the ankle. “It’s just that—“before he could finish a couple of tourists came traipsing down the aisle, speaking quickly in Mandarin to one another. Adrien cocked his head to the side, listening.

            “Here,” Adrien said, snagging her wrist and pulling her over to sit between himself and the window. He waved at the tourists and called ‘hey!’ in the dialect. ‘These seats are free.’

            Marinette was entirely conscious of Adrien’s hand on hers until he nodded with a friendly smile to the tourists but his hand was still resting on her wrist.

            She swallowed then looked out the window, hoping that the setting sun also hid her rising blush. That other girl didn’t like him back? Well that meant that she had a chance. A real one. And maybe, this trip was exactly the way to make it happen.

#

            Adrien spoke cheerfully to the Chinese tourists for an hour and Marinette wished that she’d tried harder to learn Mandarin. Still, listening to the tonal language of her childhood was lulling. Within a few minutes, she was dozing.

            Adrien glanced over when her head began to bob and then rested gently on his shoulder. Something warm kindled in his chest at the touch and he smiled.

            Friends.

            The couple he’d been talking to were on their honeymoon from Beijing and on their way to Brussels for sight-seeing. They’d chatted about architecture and he gave some restaurant recommendations, but then they’d turned to speak to each other and he hadn’t wanted to intrude.

            He was grateful to be riding with Marinette. When he’d gotten to the station and realized he was late, he’d felt sick. One more trip alone. One more journey by himself. He’d wanted to share the journey, even it was just with Chloe. But seeing Marinette in the same situation was heartening. She was a kind girl and one of the first friends he’d ever made when he started the new school. He was glad that he was able to at least—

            The train began to shake and he frowned, looking around. The couple beside him clutched their armrests and smoke billowed by the window from farther up the line. Adrien knit his brows in concern and gently shook Marinette.

            She came awake all at once, eyes snapping open, body stiff.

            “Wha-?”

            Before he could say more, there was a sickening lurch.

            Above them luggage slammed down and began to fall.

            People began to scream and he grabbed Marinette’s hand as they began to lift and careen. The train car had slammed from the tracks and with another terrible lurch they began to roll, roll off the tracks and into the woods at a terrifying speed.


	2. Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When a train crash interrupts what should be a fun vacation, Marinette and Adrien discover exactly what makes a hero.

            Adrien didn’t know if he’d ever forget the terror in Marinette’s face when their train crashed. She screamed and they locked hands. The car rolled and spun, but he could still see her eyes so wide, her pupils tiny within the whites. He turned in time to see several more suitcases crashing down and bouncing. Reacting on instinct, turning and scooping her close as they rolled.

            It wasn’t like being Chat Noir. He felt the suitcases hit, heard the glass near their heads break and tasted the terror in the air as the car rolled and rolled… and then stopped.

            The emergency lights glowed softly. The train was on its side; the walkway was a wall instead of the ground. Adrien groaned, out a breath of pent-up air and pulled back to look down at Marinette. She had buried her head into his shoulder and was trembling, eyes screwed tight, fingers clawed into his shirt.

            He coughed from smoke that had begun to fill their car.

            “Marinette?”

            She coughed and nodded. “Fine! I’m fine,” she said, her words shaky. “Are you okay?”

            “Yeah.” He tried to straighten but the seats were blocking the way. Adrien pulled back and she lifted her head, her eyes squinting around. They both fished phones out of pockets and within a few minutes two beams of light illuminated the car. People began to call out to one another. It was chaos, mad and terrible chaos. He shivered, but before he could think, he heard Marinette’s clear and steady voice.

            “Adrien, we have to get out of here. The car is on fire.”

            He turned to where she was pointing her light and nodded, coughing. “Yeah, yeah we do.” He turned and held his hand out.

            “Let’s stay together,” he said, eyes moving as he spoke. “I don’t want to get separated.”

She stared at his hand, and he worried for a moment that she’d hit her head in their crash but then she clasped it, holding tight.

            People were hurt, people were tripping over dropped bags and children were squalling as frazzled and frantic train workers tried to corral and get people to remain calm. He swallowed and reflexively strengthen his grip on Marinette’s hand.

            “There,” she said, again, her voice like a beacon of order in the sea of chaos and horror. “Let’s help them.”

            She pointed and saw to his relief a couple of people trying to unlock the emergency exit. They climbed over the mountain of luggage and dodged the sidewise seats until they made it to the exit. But the window wouldn’t open.

            “It’s jammed from that tree,” Marinette said. They both jumped, letting go of one another as the wail of the fire alarm began to go off in the car letting out shrill, staccato beeps that split eardrums.

            If the panic had been under the surface before, now it ramped up. Adrien slammed his shoulder against the frame with the other two. They had to get out of here or they were going to die of smoke inhalation.

#

            Marinette looked around, shaking from low-key terror. She was too close to everyone to risk transforming. Dark and smoky or not, Adrien at least would notice if she disappeared in this chaos. They weren’t going to be able to budge the window with that big tree in the way and the side of the car was warped and broken, effectively tying the car up like the ends of a bon-bon. Their only chance out was the window exit. If only they could break the glass.

            She looked around and she saw a pole sticking up at an angle from the luggage rack. She shoved her phone in her pocket and with both hands pulled the bar down.

            “Move back!” she ordered, eyes on the corners of the windows. The two fellow travelers and Adrien backed up and with a shove, she slammed the small and concentrated tip of the pole into the corner of the window.

            It was almost instantaneous, the shattering effect from the corner of the tempered glass, the pressure point crumbling the glass into little pebbled beads. Fresh air burst through the warped opening.

            Adrien let out a low whistle.

            “How did you know how to break it?”

            She dropped the pole and rubbed her hands. The shockwave had travelled down the pole and through her arms.

            “Happens all the time at the bakery. I drop a cake cover flat and nothing. Nick a corner? I’m sweeping glass.” She turned and cupped her hands around her mouth.

            “We have a way out!”

            Adrien swallowed. “C’mon Marinette,” he hissed, his hand on her shoulder, pushing her towards the window.

            He was right to be wary because almost as soon as he tried push her towards the window, the two passengers who’d been trying to open the emergency exit shoved past them and pulled themselves up. Within moments she couldn’t see them. She grit her teeth.

            “We should be helping each other,” she said as he pushed her up. If it hadn’t been such a harried situation, she might have savored his hands on her hips as he lifted her.

            “We will,” he vowed, turning to the people behind them. “Grab their hands and help them down as I hand them up.”

            Marinette swallowed then nodded. She crouched on the edge of the train car and looked both ways in the fading darkness. And her jaw dropped. The engine of the train was on fire and small fires were starting all over the long line. She was jarred out of her rubbernecking to see other people flooding out of the cars, and looked down to grab the hands of the first person Adrien handed up to her.

            They became a chain, him handing up, her helping down. People in all sorts of states. Some stunned, some much worse off, blood flowing from cuts over faces, arms, and legs. They’d helped the staff of the train empty half of the passengers when, from her perch atop the broken car, Marinette saw another explosion farther down the line.

            “Adrien, we need to hurry,” she called down, sweat streaking her dirty face. He’d turned his head when the explosion rocked through and clenched his jaw.

            His handsome face was covered in the smoky grime but he turned, calling for people to hurry.

            She pulled and pulled, her arms screaming from the exertion of helping men and women larger and older than her through the opening.

            They were almost done and she was relieved when she saw the last of the train staff climbing out.

            “C’mon, son,” one of the conductors said. He’d been near the end. “I think that’s everyone. Let’s get out of here.”

            Adrien nodded, his previously perfect hair sweat stained and stuck to his head… but then his head jerked sideways.

            “Someone is back there!” he said, turning.

            Fear clawed its way up to her throat and before the conductor could stop her, she leapt down after Adrien.

            “Miss!” the conductor shouted, but Marinette ignored him, plunging into the smoky hell.

            She heard what had summoned Adrien back; the weeping of a child.

            “Mama!”

            The flames had gotten higher and Marinette pulled her shirt over her mouth, squinting teary eyes after her friend.

            A small child had become wedged up in the baggage shelf and his foot was caught. He was bleeding heavily from his face, eyes bleary as he whimpered for his mother.

            “Get me something to pry him out with!” she said, climbing past Adrien, her smaller body folding up with the child. He nodded and she prayed as she tried to gather the boy to her working her hand down his leg to see if she could work him out of the hole.

Adrien appeared out of the smoke and gave a short ‘ha!’ when he slammed the pole down and tried to find an anchor. The smoke was heavy and the child in her arms wheeze, squeezing her around her neck. “Mama!” he cried again.  Adrien scanned the problem and then with a grunt and shove, he popped the heavy trunk off the poor boy’s foot.

            She was lightning quick, wrapping the toddler up and then rolling out of the upside down baggage shelf.  

            Adrien caught her and ran behind her, shoving her towards the window. She pushed the kid up to the conductor and leapt up, not bothering for a boost. She reached her hand down and without missing a beat, Adrien snagged it, following her momentum and pulled her with him off the train car.

            They got five meters from the car before there was a flare of fire and the loud shattering of glass.

            Adrien pulled her to him, yet again putting himself between her and the danger.

            She gasped as she saw over his shoulder, the fire crackling up, dancing high in the air, like a living being. She realized with a swallow that she was clinging to him and pulled away, backing up from the wreck. Heat was flowing off of it in huge waves. Adrien didn’t let her go, didn’t stop holding onto her shoulders.

            “My baby!” a frantic mother shouted. They both turned to see a blonde woman with a ripped jacket and missing a shoe stumble towards the conductor and the kid they’d pulled out together.

            Adrien turned and with wonder in his voice, murmured, “You’re amazing, Marinette.”

#

            The emergency services came screaming through the woods and police officers swarmed the area soon after. Adrien saw the reporters with dread and realized, he was definitely going to be going home early.

            Marinette had sat silently next to him, her knee pressed against his own. He looked out at all the people, most fine, most okay… but couldn’t help but remember how close it all had been.

            “Mom and Dad are going to freak out,” she murmured, pulling her knees against her chest. He reached his arm over and pulled her to his side, needing the touch after such a horrible event.

            It wasn’t like when he was Chat Noir. Every time he and Ladybug took on an enemy, he knew in the back of his mind that her miraculous ladybug power would right the wrongs as they came. Nothing was serious damage and being a superhero was like playing a video game. There was always a reset. This? Nothing was going to reset this.

            “Yup. My trip is definitely canceled too.”

            She blinked and looked up at him.

            “But why?”

            He raised an eyebrow and couldn’t help but laugh.

            “Um, Marinette,” he said dryly, squeezing her shoulder, “I don’t know if you noticed, but the train derailed.”

            She punched him lightly. He coughed and let her go, hugging his ribs.

            “I know that,” she said, hugging her knees closer. “But I’m still going to Brussels.”

            He pulled his head back, puzzled. “Won’t your Mom and Dad…”

            She shook her head. “Oh. they’ll be upset. But… I really want to go to this concert.” Her chin set with a bit of determination. “It’s my first trip abroad.” He grinned then, and nudged her with his shoulder.

            “You know, you’re a rare bird, Marinette.”

            She blinked and looked at him.

            Her usual cute nose was smudged badly with smoke and dirt. Her clothes, like his, he noted, were filthy from the dirt and mess of the train.

            “What do you mean?”

            He blew a strand of hair out of his eyes, but was afraid to run his hand through it in case it made it worse.

            “That.” He nodded his head to where the fire trucks were trying to put out the car. “You didn’t panic. You helped. That’s pretty remarkable.” He grinned then and rested his chin on his hand. “Ladybug would be proud.”

            She hesitated but then an EMT came closer with a couple of blankets.

            “Are you two injured?”

            “No sir,” Marinette said, pushing herself up off her knees. “Adrien?”

            He rose too.

            “Some bumps and bruises. Nothing serious.”

            “Here. A bus is coming to take you all to the next station,” the paramedic said, handing them both blankets. “Please come this way.”

            Marinette turned towards him as he pulled the blanket around himself.

            “Adrien, you know,” she hesitated, “you were brave too. Going back for that kid.”

            He shifted, uncomfortable from the praise.

            He was used to people telling him nice things. Telling him how handsome he was, how well he looked in a photograph. Chloe was constantly complimenting his handsome face. But to be noticed for what he did? That was novel.

            “Thanks,” he said, forgetting his resolve not to run his hand through his hair. Then he grinned. “Alya is going to have a fit when she finds out she missed all the excitement."

#

            Fit had been an understatement.

            First, they’d called their parents. Marinette’s mother had wailed in relief when she heard Marinette’s voice. The news was apparently making a huge stir. That wasn’t surprising. It was the first derailment the line had ever experienced in over 30 years of service. Still, she managed to calm them down, promising that she’d be better off finishing the trip than trying to find a way home in the chaos.

             Then Adrien called Nathalie who was, understandably, anxious.

            “You’re to wait in Brussels until a car can be rented. We’re hiring a driver and bringing you home tonight, young man.”

            “No, Nathalie,” Adrien said, standing in line with his back to Marinette. “Tell my father I’ll go home when I planned.”

            “He wants you home, Adrien,” Nathalie said, a warning in her tone. “And you know that if your father has said—”

            “Tell Father that if he forces me to come home, I’ll go to the media and make a spectacle.”

            Nathalie gave a sharp intake. “Adrien,” she warned.

            “And then I’ll make a bunch of promises that Father hasn’t approved of,” he warned. “I’ll make this into an Event. One that will completely overshadow the new perfume launch that they’re doing this weekend. No one will remember the Gabriel name and all that promotion, all that money and all that press will be completely ignored in light of the Gabriel heir surviving a train wreck.”

            Nathalie sucked her teeth. They’d spent millions on this launch. It was a celebrity market and had to go off well.

            “I’ll be home in two days. Tell Father that I didn’t want to make waves on the same weekend as the launch. Tell him I’m fine. Tell him that he promised.”

            There was silence. People were beginning to load onto the buses and he saw Marinette putting her phone in her pocket.

            “Fine,” Nathalie bit out. “Fine. Just this once. But you’d better be on time. We’d better not have to wait one extra moment for you and you’d better be exactly where you promised to be.”

            “I will,” he said, shoulders sagging in relief. “I need to go now.”

            “Adrien, one more thing,” Nathalie said before he could hang up.

            “Yeah?”

            “I’m very glad you’re okay.”

            He felt a twist of something like affection for the draconian assistant.

            “Thank you, Nathalie. Me too.”

#

            When they were on the bus, Marinette had braced herself and called Alya. Adrien didn’t know why he found it so funny, but Marinette kept getting more and more flustered the more Alya squawked and yelled. She nearly hit him in the ribs from sniggering. Soon though, she hung up and let out a sigh.

            “I think I’d rather deal with another train wreck than Alya when she’s so worked up,” she said, putting the phone back in the little shoulder bag she’d inexplicably managed to keep on in the crash. That reminded him of an unpleasant truth.

            “Ugh,” he groaned, crossing his arms on the seat ahead of him and pressing his head down on his arms.

            “What?”

            “Chloe.”

            It as Marinette’s turn to giggle and Adrien caught her grin in the moonlight. Something stirred within him again, like when she’d laid her head on his shoulder before their crash.

            “You should do that more,” he said, pulling his phone out of his jacket. She wiped her eyes on the backs of her hands, adding more smoke streaks to her face.

            “Do what?”

            “Laugh. You have a nice laugh.”

            She blushed and looked back out the window. “Flattery, Adrien?”

            “Anything to put this off.” He sighed and pulled his phone out.

            It wasn’t a long conversation.

            Chloe, it turned out, answered the phone as a shrill harpy and compared to Alya’s worry, Marinette decided she was better off.

            “I know you stood me up!” Marinette could hear. “Well you just enjoy! I’ve left all your stuff with Nino! You’ll regret pissing me off!”

            Adrien didn’t get a word in before Chloe hung up on him. He frowned and then shrugged.

            “So,” he said conversationally as he let his head fall back on the seat. “You and Alya wouldn’t happen to have room for an extra person?”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to Turtletotem and Loosescrewslefty for their beta work in this. I really appreciate all y'all's help. Any mistakes and errors are my own.


	3. Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of the crash. Someone plots for sweet, sweet loving.

 

            Alya and Nino rushed them as soon as they got off the bus. Marinette felt her eyes prick with relief when her taller friend threw her arms around her, hugging her close.

            Nino grinned when he saw Adrien and bumped his fist.

            “Looks like you two didn’t have a great ride,” he observed, then ducked when Adrien tried to snag him. Adrien shook his head and looked around at the station.

            “Oh Marinette, you poor thing,” Alya was crooning. “I saw on the news! And it wasn’t even an Akuma!”

            Marinette shrugged. “Ladybug and Chat Noir aren’t much good against regular disasters I guess,”

Adrien coughed, “Well, it’s not like they had a chance to get there. They live in Paris, and we were pretty far out.”

            Alya waved a hand as if to erase the argument. “C’mon. Adrien, you’re going to stay with Nino. We already checked in.”

            Marinette sagged against her.

            “Thank you Alya,” she breathed. “You’re the best.”

            They all piled into the taxi but before someone could go to the front, Nino pulled Alya into his lap, much to her blush and a raised brow from Adrien.

            “They’re saying it was a faulty track,” Alya said, scrolling through her phone. “But there are rumors it was a bomb and then someone else said—”

            “Please,” Marinette said, clenching her fingers on her knees, “did they say how many people were hurt? Did anyone die?”

            Beside her, Adrien swallowed and then without bidding took her hand. She squeezed it back.

            Alya’s reporter tone slowed and then she put her phone down. “Um, they don’t have a final count yet. But at least 10 people.”

            Adrien glanced down at their joined hands, but at the news, Marinette swallowed and clutched him. She nodded and the mood in the taxi shifted from joyous cheating of death to mourning.

            Adrien leaned over and whispered, “Hey,” and she turned to look. Alya cocked her head, her eyes taking in the sudden intimacy between the two. “We did everything we could, okay? Don’t blame yourself.”

            Marinette ducked her head.

            How could she explain? She kept playing the crash over and over in her head. Maybe she could have run off and transformed. But would Ladybug have been a better choice? Could she have stopped it? Her Miraculous Cure only worked on damage that happened during an Akuma attack. Sure, it had brought people back from the dead before… but only after they’d been killed by an Akuma. If what Alya had said was true, then this hadn’t had anything to do with the war she waged against Hawkmoth and his quest to take the Miracle stones.

            “Yeah,” she said softly. “Thanks, Adrien. I’ll be okay.”

            The cab slowed then stopped. Before anyone could cough up, Adrien slid a card, paying for the cab. Alya and Nino started to protest, but he waved them off.

            “I was stranded by my travel buddy,” he said with good humor. “Consider it my thanks.”

            They all trooped out and into the hotel. It was a simple building, not nearly as extravagant and ostentatious as Chloe’s home, but still, a luxury to Marinette who’d rarely stayed in hotels.

            The four of them had been given two separate rooms with an adjoining door, and stood in front of the room, sorting luggage.

            “Let’s get cleaned up and then get something to eat,” Alya proposed. “I know I could use some food.”

            Marinette nodded but before she could disappear after Alya into their room, Adrien grabbed her hand again, a gentle tug. She turned, surprised. He was dirty, his blue eyes kohled with evidence of their adventure.

            “I need to talk to you later,” he said, glancing over at Alya and Nino. “Can you help me out?”

            She blushed then nodded shyly, her mouth dry. He smiled and let her go.

            “Good. I’m counting on you.”

#

            Alya, kindly, didn’t pester her with questions. She helped her with her bags and then gave her first dibs on the bathroom while she scrolled through more of the incoming coverage of the train derailment.

            As soon as the door was closed and water in the sink was running Tikki burst out of her purse.

            “Marinette! I’m so glad you’re okay!” the little Kwami squeaked, throwing her entire body onto Marinette’s cheek.  Marinette smiled and pressed her fingers against the tiny fairy’s back.

            “Fine, Tikki. One question though… if I transform …could—”

            Tikki’s little head drooped and she floated down to stand on the counter.

            “I’m sorry, Marinette,” she said, her tiny voice barely audible over the sink she was running. “But that was a human made action. The Ladybug power can’t solve all disasters. I’m so sorry.”

            Marinette closed her eyes and let out a breath. A weight lifted from her then. It truly wasn’t her fault, it truly wasn’t something she could have stopped. For now, that was enough.

#

            After a shower and clean clothes, Marinette felt less pathetic and more excited about her first trip abroad. She wasn’t going to let the horror of the afternoon invade what was supposed to have been their solo adventure into the world. So they had been through a traumatizing and horrendous tragedy. As Ladybug, she’d seen all sorts of bad things. She pushed the feelings back. No matter how terrible the experience, she had to eat. She could fall to pieces about it later.

            She wondered what Adrien had wanted to talk to her about, but as they all four were strolling in the park, she got to find out.

            Nino and Alya were stepping ahead of them, animated by some detail from the movie they’d recently watched and Adrien fell back, stepping at her pace beside her. It was ridiculous to blush, she thought, but until today, they’d been no more than friendly classmates. She glanced over but Adrien’s eyes were locked on the couple in front of them. Marinette glanced back, just in time to see Nino wrap an arm around Alya’s shoulders.

            “So,” he said, softly as they watched their friends. “Here is the deal.” He glanced at her sideways. “Nino and Alya had apparently been planning to spend some… special time… together tonight.”

            Marinette’s eyes got a big as saucers and she covered her mouth before she squeaked out of embarrassment. Adrien didn’t look at her but when she glanced his way she also saw a small smattering of red dancing across his cheeks.

            “Oh!” she whispered, dropping her hands down to clutch in front of herself.

            Adrien nodded and once again rubbed the back of his neck, his tell for embarrassment.

            “Alya didn’t say anything?”

            “Um,” Marinette said, looking down. “I mean, I knew that she was excited that Nino was coming… but I figured… I didn’t think…” She shut her mouth before she burst out with something mortifying.

            Adrien grinned then nodded. “I tried to see if there was a spare room, but apparently because of the crash, the hotel got booked up with reporters and people who are waiting for different connections. So, um, do you think you could let me hang with you for a while tonight?”

#

            “Are you SURE you don’t mind?” Alya was saying again while Marinette sat on her bed, hugging a pillow and watching Alya nervously fiddle with her hair in the mirror.

            “I don’t!” Of course she did. “But, are you… ready for this Alya?”

            Alya met her eyes in the mirror, then blushed, looking down, “Well, it’s just…” She carefully lined up the makeup that she’d just spent 30 minutes applying.  “Honestly? I don’t know. But Nino and I aren’t necessarily… well.” For the first time Marinette had known her, Alya was tongue tied.      Something eased inside and Marinette grinned at her in the mirror.

            “At least your bra is pretty,” she teased. Then squealed and ducked when Alya snatched her pillow and smacked her with it. She was still laughing when they heard a knock at the connecting door. They both froze and looked at each other. Alya scrambled back, eyes wide.

            “How do I look?” she demanded, eyes darting. “Is my breath okay?”

            Marinette slid down and leaned forward then nodded.

            “Very kissable,” she confirmed, grinning as Alya swiped at her again, before moving towards the door.

            Alya wore a long robe to cover up whatever surprise she had planned for Nino. Unaware she was supposed to be seducing a crush, Marinette had only brought the simplest and most innocent of pajamas, a button up shirt over a pair of flannel long pants. She sat on the bed and pulled her pillow back into her lap to hold.

            Adrien nodded, a bit embarrassed to Alya as they swapped spaces then leaned against the door, shutting it behind him.

            Marinette swallowed.

            She was alone.

            In a bedroom.

            With Adrien.

            He looked up then, and as if he could read her thoughts looked away, rubbing his head.

            “Um. Hi,” he said, pushing off from the door and crossing the room to the other bed.

            “Hey,” she said, hugging the pillow a little tighter to her chest. He was wearing blue and white striped pajamas, long sleeves and long pants like her. For some reason she’d always imagined he slept without a shirt. She lunged forward and snapped the TV on, something, anything to distract her from the awkwardness of not knowing what to say.

            They both froze when it was coverage of the train wreck. She hesitated but couldn’t help but stare at the long length of train that had smoke coming from the rubble.

            “It’s a good thing no one recognized me for an interview,” Adrien said, crossing his arms behind his head and laying back onto Alya’s bed.

            Marinette swallowed then flipped the channel, stopping on a harmless cartoon. She left it, muting the volume.

            “Are you okay?” she asked, softly, leaning back and pulling on the edges of the pillow in her lap.

            “I’ll be okay. It’s not—” he froze, stopping the words. She frowned, trying to finish the words in her head. Not what?

            “I’ll be okay,” he said instead. Then he rolled over. “I’m tired, okay, mind if we sleep?”

             She swallowed then nodded, reaching over at the same time to turn off her light. Their hands brushed the lamp at the same time and they both pulled away, and then, again in sync chuckled.

            “I’m not going to eat you, Marinette,” he chided, reaching over for the light and snapping it off. “We’re friends.”

            In the darkness, the lit TV cast odd shadows around the room. Marinette pulled her blankets back and snuggled under them. She felt Tikki’s warm form against the back of her pillow, a small reminder that no matter how nervous she was, she wasn’t alone. She turned off the TV and plunged them into darkness.

            After first, neither of them spoke. Marinette wondered if boys even talked to each other in the dark when they shared the evenings.

            “Adrien? Are you awake?”

            There was a moment then, “Yeah, I’m up.”

            “How did you know what to do?”

            “What do you mean?”

            “Back at the train. You… you said I didn’t panic but… you didn’t either.”

            The bed squeaked and the blankets shifted but she could tell he was laying facing her now, the table with the little clock the only thing between them.

            “Do you think some people are naturally good at disasters?”

            She was quiet as she pondered it. Then nodded. Then felt stupid because it was dark and he couldn’t see her nodding.

            “Yeah, I guess I do.”

            “You’re like that, you know. Naturally good at taking charge.”

            She shifted, embarrassed.

            “Nino said when the Knight Akuma tried to take the city a few months back you kept the class calm. You gave everyone a good structure in a panic.”

            She pulled the blanket over her head, but it wasn’t as if Adrien could see her blushing in the dark.

            “I guess I did,” she said.

            “What?”

            She pulled the blanket off her head. “I said, I guess I did.”

            She snuggled deeper into the hotel blankets, her eyes on his outline.

            “Um, so, uh, Adrien,” she said, feeling emboldened by the darkness. Emboldened because whoever he liked didn’t like him back. And whoever that girl was? She hadn’t just survived a train wreck with him. They had a connection now, something the other girl… whoever she might be, couldn’t understand.

            “Yeah Marinette?”

            “There is something I wanted to tell you. Something I’ve been wanting to tell you for a long time, actually.” Oh god, her hands were starting to shake. Her heart pounded in her ears.

            He shifted and she could perceive he’d propped his head up on his hand. She hesitated… was she doing this now?

            “Yeah? What?”

            “Well… I…” She inhaled, about to pour the words out.

            They were interrupted by a staccato rapping at the door. Marinette groaned and snapped the light on, getting up.

            “Did you order room service?” he asked. She stalked towards the door.

            “Nope.” She pulled open the door leading to the hallway.

            Standing with arms crossed, was Chloe Bourgeois, blonde hair in an artful ponytail, eyes narrowed, arms crossed and foot tapping.

            “Chloe?” Because of course it was.

            “Chloe?” Adrien asked behind her.

            “Adrien!” Chloe squealed, pushing herself past Marinette and throwing her arms around him. “Oh, I saw the news! I was so worried!”

            Marinette glared, fists clenched. Adrien looked baffled, before awkwardly patting her on her back. “Um, Chloe, you canceled my reservation.”

            She pulled back, crocodile tears in her wide eyes.

            “Oh, but I didn’t know it was an accident.” She turned her head and glared hatefully at Marinette. “You were supposed to be with Nino,” she said with accusation. Then she scowled. “And why are you with her!?”

            Adrien rolled his eyes.

            “Chloe.” He put his hands on her shoulders and then firmly stepped back, “You. Canceled. My. Room.” He punctuated each word with a gentle shake.

            She pouted then, standing on one foot while clutching her hands under her chin, she sniffled. Marinette was privately sick in her mouth.

            “But, Adrien, now that I know what happened, I thought you could share my suite. I have plenty of room.”

            “Then why did you give all his stuff to Nino, Chloe?” Marinette asked, exasperated with her theatrics.

            Chloe whirled and stomped her foot down, fists clenched at her sides, the face of broken-hearted princess replaced with bitch in .02 seconds.

            “No one is TALKING to you, Marinette.”

            Marinette rolled her eyes and stepped out into the hall.

            “Wait, Marinette!” Adrien called, making her pause. She turned her head, but saw Chloe throw herself in front of him again and threw her hands up and she headed down towards the lobby.

#

            In a dark room a man stood alone. He wore a deep purple coat and his face was concealed. Rage and desire burned twin flames in his heart as he let his mind wander, sensing feelings sparking all over the city, sensing and searching for the points of the beautiful Miracle Stones, the stone of creation and the stone of destruction. He shivered as he felt them, a swirling vortex of power, just out of reach. He searched around them, fury at his continuous failures, continued offerings of powers to useless and flawed vessels.

            He wasn’t ready to stop. Wasn’t ready to give up. Soon, he would succeed and what he craved, what he needed more than money or fame would be within his grasp.

            There it was.

            He opened his eyes and the window to his sanctuary unveiled, revealing the bright moonlight that scattered the flocks and flocks of white butterflies scattered around his feet.

            There it was, in reach.

            “The loss of life is so horrible,” he mused, the image clear to his mind’s eye. A train conductor was standing, head bowed over the destruction of an entire set of cars. “And the guilt so fierce.” But the driver didn’t blame himself, didn’t take responsibility, instead he railed against the job that had forced him to work without sleep for days. Hawkmoth grinned, the smile a slice of hate on a face of darkness.

            “Come little Akuma,” he crooned as he put his hand out. Obedient to his will, the little butterfly landed and he infused it. The purple insect floated off, a seed of power ready to bloom into a monster of ultimate pain.

#

            Jacques was sitting on the bench, cuts on his face his only injury. There would be an investigation, he knew, too angry to care about presenting a sympathetic face. It was a damn lie that he’d been sleeping, that he’d had anything to do with the crash. It had to be problems on the track. But here he was, stuck waiting for the police to question him. The injustice burned. He looked down at his conductor’s hat and closed his eyes. Wasn’t there anything that could get him out of this?

            Something jolted and when he opened his eyes, they burned with something… more. He’d not felt this electric since he’d accidently brushed a live wire on the track.

            “Conductor,” the voice greeted him. “I will give you the opportunity to run all over those who’ve wronged you. I just need you to get me these,” the image of a set of earrings and a black ring appeared before his eyes. “Get them and bring them to me.”

            He grinned and power flooded over his hat, over his hands, arms and soon over his entire body.

            The man who stood was a warped joke of what a conductor should be. He grinned and pulled the hat on, ready for the hunt.

#

            Adrien groaned and looked down at Chloe. She was making his first trip abroad a giant pain.

            “Chloe, I know we’re friends, but you’re being unreasonable right now.”

She planted her fists on her hips. “If we were friends, why didn’t you come find me after you got here?”

            “Because!” he said, throwing his hands up. “It’s been a long day! I was in a TRAIN WRECK!”

            She tossed her ponytail.

            “Yeah, but Adrien,” she looked at her nails, annoyed, “what about me?”

            He stared at her. For a moment, the car full of screaming panic and terror filled his nose with smoke. One clear voice, directing them to the exit. He exhaled and he was back in the hallway with his bratty childhood friend.

            “What about you, Chloe?” he asked, his voice soft. “I’m tired of you. I’m tired of ‘this,’” he motioned between the two of them. “Please… go back to your room and don’t bother me anymore.”

            He stepped past her. She tried to grab at him but he sidestepped, stalking past her, intent on finding his true friend, who obviously was upset by something.

            He turned the corner and saw her, sitting in one of the huge windows at the hotel. Marinette’s signature pigtails were covering her ears, her cheek turned towards the glass. He hesitated. She looked like she was deep in thought. He stepped a little closer and heard it then, the news report. He turned to see the big screen TV was showing the tons of metal and wreckage strewn about the France and Belgium border. He turned back and saw Marinette was watching it in the reflection, her own face super imposed over it.

            He shook his head. That wouldn’t do.

            He approached her and then sat down across from her, blocking her exit with one foot as he sat. She jolted upright, eyes wide, back pressed against the wall.

            “Adrien, I thought—”

            He waved a hand and pulled a knee up, resting his chin on it so he could look at her. His other leg was stretched out to continue blocking her path.

            “You thought what? That I was going back with Chloe? Please, Marinette. I might not want to hurt her feelings, but I know who my true friends are.”

She bit her lip and then nodded, pulling her knees close.

            “It’s not that. It’s… ” She shook her head then looked up at him, smiling. “I’m tired, I think. It’s been a long day, you know?”

            He coughed and nodded his head back to the TV. “Understatement, don’t you think?”

She smiled, eyes crinkling, then swung her legs over his, bouncing to her feet. The move was fluid and graceful. He turned and she offered her hand out. He smiled and took it, letting her pull him up. Only she misjudged how much pulling he needed and within a heartbeat, they were nose to nose.

            This close, her eyes were huge, blue and wide with something… unknown. Some emotion he could almost grasp.

            “Um,” he was still holding onto her hand, “didn’t you want to ask me something?”

            He didn’t think her eyebrows could raise higher but she leapt back as if he’d burned her, scratching the back of her head with a face as red as a fresh tomato.

            “Um! Yes, well, I do! That is to say—” before she could spit out whatever it was she’d been keeping in, there was a horrendous noise on the TV. They all turned, everyone in the lobby.

            “—and we warn citizens to please turn and go indoors as an unidentified creature has sprung from the wreckage of the train derailment and is making its speedy way to Brussels. We repeat, we want everyone to please stay inside—”

            Shit.

            His eyes focused on the map the television was giving him, calculating the movement. If an Akuma was traveling at 260km/hour, how long did he have until it hit Brussels? He gritted his teeth, clenching his fist. Shit. And he was miles away from Ladybug. No way would she find out about this from wherever she was in Paris.

            “I… I’m going to go tell Alya to watch the news,” Marinette snapped, backing up from the TV. He turned, gratified he wouldn’t have to create an excuse to get away from her. She’d been through enough today.

            “Yeah! I’ll uh, go see if it’s on other channels.”

            She waved, as if she’d barely heard him and raced towards the elevators. He waited until she’d turned the corner, before jumping over towards the stairs and dodging into the empty emergency exit.

            “Plagg!” he snapped, waking the little Kwami from the front pocket of his pajama top. “Looks like there are no vacations for Chat Noir!”

#

            “This can’t be happening,” Marinette muttered as she slammed the bolt on the public ladies' room with huge open windows. “Either that or I have the worst luck in history.”

            “But Marinette,” Tikki protested, floating up from the pocket of her pajamas, “Ladybugs are very lucky!”

            Marinette rolled her eyes and then pulled her hair back. “Yeah? Well let’s go make some good luck!”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and commenting! You can follow me on Tumblr at miraculoushistorien.tumblr.com


	4. Part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Chat and Ladybug must derail an Akuma.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unlike all my previous chapters, this one snuck up on me, so it has not been beta'd. However in a couple of days I will post an edited version to iron out any mistakes that I have here. Thanks for your patience! I just didn't want to miss my deadline. :D

#

            Chat Noir bounced to the top of the hotel’s roof from his extension rod and scowled in the direction of the new Akuma. He was trying to figure out how the hell he was going to trap and destroy this latest mess when he heard a zip of line and a ‘puh’ of surprise. He turned his head and felt his face split into a grin. Behind him was Ladybug, hands on her hips as she assessed the far-away cloud that spelled doom for Brussels.

            “Well,” he purred, thrilled, “Look what the cat dragged in!”

            She hopped down and cocked her head. “You got summoned to Brussels too, huh?”

            He blinked, opened his mouth to protest, then shut it, grinning, “If you’re going to be here, my lady, how could I resist such an invitation?”

            She rolled her eyes and walked past him. “Well then,” she said, patting him on the back, “It would be rude to show up to the party late.”

#

            Ladybug was not going to look a gift cat in the mouth. She had no idea how he’d managed to get all the way from Paris to Brussels, but she was grateful that she wasn’t going to have to fight this new Akuma on her own. She hadn’t been summoned of course, but how else could she explain her presence without possibly giving away her identity?

            “Um,” he said as they parkour-bounced and yo-yo zipped their way towards the estimated collision, “Any idea of who the heck has been Akuma-tized?”

            She grit her teeth, thinking back over the news report that she’d seen with Adrien. It looked like a train creation, which made the very terrible accident she had gotten away from a very likely trigger.

            “My guess is someone who was involved in that train wreck,” she said, doing a running cartwheel then diving vault off a particularly high rooftop. Her yo-yo whipped out and swung her past a set of peaks. Around them Brussel flew by. She’d wanted to see the city, but not like this.

            “Right,” he called back, vaulting and somersaulting to another gutter and bouncing back up until they were level again. “I’ll come in on the left and you go on the right. Let’s try and keep the damage down, eh?”

            She grinned back at him.

            “I didn’t die by flaming monkey poo today, I’m not dying by a train Akuma tonight.” They sprang apart but she kept him in sight on her left side.

            It wasn’t like they could miss the spectacle. As soon as they got to the edge of Brussels proper, their incredible Kwami-laced speed breaking the distance into easy chunks, they both paused at the top of the train station’s roof, crouching together, knee to knee.

            “Not a lot of places for an ambush,” Ladybug said, squinting through the darkness.

            “Usually Hawkmoth is so considerate, making his attacks happen during the day.” Chat said.

            “Lucky us,” Ladybug muttered, then straightened, aiming her yo-yo down to the tree branches. Before she could throw, they heard it, a sound of a horn so loud and booming that they both lost their footing for a moment.

            “I think I figured out the new Akuma’s abilities,” Chat Noir said helpfully. They both clutched their heads as the train’s horn got closer. The ground close to them began to crack. Ladybug gritted her teeth.

            “I’m beginning to wish that I’d brought some earplugs along.”

            Chat held his head and looked around. “I can rush him!”

            She shook her head, and looked around, seeing a clear demarcation from the sound wave.

            “No need!” She snatched his hand and then with a springing bounce, pulled him with her to side as another ear-splitting boom blasted their way.

            Out of the immediate radius the horn was obnoxious but not debilitating.

            “Alright,” he grinned, winking. “That was some Sound thinking Ladybug.”

            Somethings never changed.

            “Let’s go!” she cried, running towards the speeding monster train that was close to pulling into the damaged station. They took off, zigzagging and staying out of the range of the audio blast. Around them the buildings crumbled and fell from the shattering waves of sound. With a challenging whoop, Chat leapfrogged ahead of Ladybug and landed on the side of one of the cars. Standing at the front of the train was a demented conductor, eyes glowing with a purple mask that marked him as under control by an Akuma.

            They didn’t speak, the understanding so synchronized. To the left went Ladybug, to the right, Chat Noir. With rod and yo-yo they attacked.

Only to have the evil conductor wheel his horn at them and blast them both backwards over the speeding train.

            Ladybug twisted in midair and snagged Chat around the wrist. He responded, lightning fast and bounced onto his feet, bracing himself on the side of the last car and pulling her too his side. They were both panting, balanced on the thin pole to plan their next attack.

            “I didn’t know he could turn it,” Chat growled.

            “What?” Ladybug asked.

            He frowned. He could see her mouth moving but nothing was coming out. Great. Deaf.

            He suddenly grinned.

            “I said that I’m in love with you!” He cried back.”

            She frowned then pointed at her ears.

            “I can’t hear you!” She shouted. Or at least, that’s what he thought she was saying. He couldn’t hear anything. She turned then her eyes got big and she pointed. A wall coming straight for them.

            They bounced apart, jumping to the top of the train. This had better be resolved and soon, he thought, otherwise how could she appreciate his flirting?

            Twice more they feinted at the evil conductor as buildings and roadways were destroyed. Twice more they had to dodge the horrible siren. His hearing began to return and he narrowed his eyes on their enemy. The man was drunk on the power, laughing maniacally as he swung his destructive horn around and around. Without warning Ladybug’s yo-yo jerked him down between a few cars as debris he couldn’t have heard swung through the spot where he was supposed to be.

            “CAN YOU HEAR?” she shouted into the side of his head. He nodded, knowing that perhaps as loud as she was talking so coul--- the buildings to the side were demolished and he sucked in a breath. Their opponent had no way of hearing either.

            “UP AHEAD THERE IS A BRIDGE. USE THE CATACLYSM!” He popped his head up and saw what she meant. He nodded in affirmation. ‘Right. Easy. Anything for you my lady,’ he thought. ‘Let me just out run a speeding train.’ With that, he took off, ready to do his part with whatever wacky plan she had cooked up.

#

            Ladybug narrowed her eyes on the lucky charm that had fallen into her hand seconds before she’d pulled Chat Noir out of the way of being a smear on the side of the locomotive. It was set of fuzzy earmuffs. She scowled, looking up at the sky. It wasn’t even cold. Then her eyes widened. She pulled the muffs over her head and then launched herself towards the conductor.

            He threw the beam of horrible, bone shaking sound at her and she stumbled…but it didn’t hurt at all. How lucky was that?

            She bounced and attacked. She was sure it was his hat, the only thing that looked anything like the European train station’s uniform. She began a blur of motion and power until with scream of frustration she was able to bounce backwards in time for Chat’s bridge to come crashing down, stopping the train in its tracks. Just like at the zoo earlier that day. Ladybug jerked the hat off the conductor’s dazed head and pulled it in half, the black butterfly of Hawkmoth’s influence fluttering out of the object. With a twist and a wave she had it purified. The man on his hands and knees shivered, the transformation of the purification leaving a tired conductor in its place. She jumped down and threw her earmuffs in the air, chanting out the spell to reset the day, so that they could fix the damage of the train. A cloud of ladybugs zoomed out and in a wave, began repairing the damage. The train and the ruts beside them disappeared.

            She was startled when Chat hopped down beside her; she’d lost sight of him in the chaos of collapsing the bridge.

            “Good to know that you’re willing to go the distance to see the job done. Have you been…training?” She turned around with a smirk.

            “You can’t resist, can you?” She asked, feeling relieved to banter with him. Relieved that this at least was still something she could do. Around them, the people were awed, starting to take pictures and shouting out amazement at the immediate repair of the Akuma-caused damange.

            Repair?

            She stiffened, her eyes going out towards the countryside, to where the huge train wreck had been. Had the Miraculous Ladybug maybe…possibly… could it reach that far?

            Chat turned his head to see where she was looking and his face became solemn.

            “Are you wondering if you…”

            “There could be a chance,” she ventured, eyes bright with unshed tears. “Maybe we put it back to right.”

            At her words, the earring beeped. She grit her teeth. But regardless, she didn’t have time to go see for herself.

            “C’mon,” he said, wrapping an arm around her waist and activating his pole to its longest stretch. His own face was determined. “But,” she said, protesting with her words as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, her knees snug on his hips, “We don’t have a lot of time!”

            He bounced them down and then shoved the pole again, vaulting them high over the city and into the forest. She ground her molars; it wasn’t like him to ignore her.

            “Chat!”

            “Humor me, ok!” he stared, intently towards the wreck. “I was on that train today!”

            Her face froze, eyes wide behind her mask. He was? He was on the train to Brussels? She held his shoulders tighter, feeling a deepening bond with her partner. It was ridiculous. Of course she cared for him. They’d saved each other’s lives countless times over the last year, and of course she’d always known he was a boy, just like she was a girl. Intellectually, she was aware he had a life outside of their hero work. He’d pushed in the beginning to know who she was, to share that, but she’d been afraid. Afraid of Ladybug’s life touching Marinette’s too closely. Afraid of what it would have meant if she let someone in. If she couldn’t even tell her beloved parents about this huge secret, couldn’t share it with her best friend, what was to say she should tell him? Yet, as they got closer, the beeps of their combined Miracle stones warning of impending power loss, she couldn’t help but urge him to go faster, to see if maybe, just maybe, they’d gotten a true miracle tonight.

#

            “It’s not far from here,” he said, dropping her down in a clearing. “I’m…I’ve got to see. Then we can re-transform and go back, ok?”

            She bit her lip and suddenly snagged his wrist.

            “No, wait.”

            He had put his stick at the small of his back but froze at her touch.

            “What?” He asked, voice…vulnerable in the darkness, the shadows of his ears sharp against the moonlight.

            “I…I was on the train too. I want to go with you.”

            They both jumped when they heard the final warning beep. He turned his head and hand, taking her wrist.

            “You were there?” He asked. She tightened her grip, swallowing, but nodded. They stood, linked, not just by the grip they had on each other, but as the weight of their shared trauma settled around them. Had he managed to transform? Or like her, had he been trapped?

            “Chat Noir…I wasn’t ready last year. Wasn’t ready to let you get to know me. But…it’s time.”

            He straightened, swallowed, then nodded.

            “It’s really dark,” he pointed out. “We could get away without seeing each other. You don’t have to. We could hide in the woods.”

            She bit her lip, almost tempted. Tempted to back out…but then, that would be a coward’s choice. And she wasn’t a coward, not anymore.

            “No,” she said, her words soft. “Chat Noir, let’s do it together.”

            He reached forward and took her other hand, eyes fierce in the darkness. “Alright then My Lady. On three?”

            She nodded.

            “One.” She whispered.

            “Two.” He replied.

            “Three.” They said in unison.

            Light in dark shadow and red flared up from their feet and they closed their eyes, their hands locked onto each other’s wrists. She swallowed, too frightened, too nervous.

            “I haven’t opened my eyes,” he breathed, still holding her hands, which were now clutching his. She coughed and laughed a bit ducking her head down.

            “Me neither.”

            “Are you sure? You can still turn around. We could walk away from each other, hide in the woods and then come back in a few minutes.”

            She frowned.

            “Why do you keep asking me?”

            He grit his teeth, “Because,” he said, “It’s your choice. It’s always been your choice.”

            She let go of a breath.

            “I’m opening them.”

            They blinked in unison. She tried to dropped his hands in shock but he tightened on hers, his own face just as amazed.

            “Marinette?”

            “Adrien?”

            “How did you—” they said at the same time. Then, “When did you---” they tried once more “No you go first…” then “no, you…”

            Frozen, they both breathed then Adrien tried, while Marinette bit her lip.

            “You’re Ladybug?”

            “Yeah,” she said, eyes still big. “You’re Chat.” Then she looked down at their hands. He dropped hers quick but it was her turn to tighten her grip.

            “I…of course you are,” he said after a moment, nodding. “At the train, you…you knew what to do.”

            She slipped her fingers in with his, intently staring at his face. “And you went back for the kid. Even though it was reckless.”

            “It was the right thing to do,” he said defensively. Suddenly she chuckled, then began to laugh. Adrien smiled and then laughed too.

            “Well it’s about time you two,” Plagg said hovering near their heads. “Adrien, now that this is out of the way, do you have anything to eat?”

            “He’s right Marinette, I’m starving.” Tikki whined, plopping with exhaustion onto Marinette’s shoulder.

            They let go then, but didn’t step back.

            “So that’s why you bought cheese!” Marinette said, puzzles snapping into place. He chuckled and pulled a round out of his jacket pocket, sheepish. “Yeah, basically.”

            She shook her head in disbelief, putting her hand to her cheek. “This whole time,” she whispered.

            He nodded, looking down at Platt.

            “Yeah, this whole time.”

            “You were right in front of/behind me,” they said in unison.

            “Jinx!” Plagg called with enthusiasm as he scarfed his cheese.

            She swallowed then turned her head towards the trees.

            “Do you think the Miracle…do you think that maybe…”

            He bit his lip.

            “If it didn’t, then…it’s not your fault Marinette.”

            She swallowed, not realizing that she’d been hoping right along with him that it had worked. That they would get past these trees and see those people who’d died whole, that the train would be fixed.

            “It probably is more wreckage,” she said softly.

            Then, Adrien nodded briskly and once more held his hand out.

            “Let’s go check.”

#

            The walk through the woods was quiet, save for the sticks and twigs. It didn’t help that they were both still in their pajamas from when they’d first transformed.

            Tikki pointed out a stretch of edible berries and Marinette held them so that she could nibble the sweet fruits.

            “You’re lucky. Plagg is picky.”

            Marinette smiled then. “If it’s sweet, then Tikki wants some. Fruit or cookies, as long as it has sugar.”

            Tikki hummed happily, stuffing her red face with the sticky berries. They moved a bit farther down, but heard something…people it sounded like.

            Adrien snagged her hand and they were running, bare feet or not.

            When they got to the edge of the woods, it was all Marinette could do to stare.

            The train was perfectly sound.

            And milling around it were confused and worried people.

            Marinette sank to her knees, her eyes filling with tears.

            They had done it.

            They had reversed it.

            Adrien’s mouth was open. Marinette was hugging Tikki.

            Miracle?

            It could have been nothing less.

#

            “I still don’t understand why BOTH your feet were so dirty,” Alya said the next morning. When she was getting ready for the day.

            “I didn’t ask what all you and Nino got up to,” Marinette said primly, fastening her left pigtail.

            “But friends shaaaaaaare, Marinette,” she teased, crimping her fingers through her curls.

            “And ladies don’t kiss and tell,” She teased back. She turned her head and squawked because Alya was right in front of her nose.

            “You two kissed!?”

            Heat flooded Marinette’s face.

            “No!” She sputtered. “It…” how could she tell Alya that sharing that moment under the moonlight had been more intimate than a simple kiss. “It wasn’t like that.”

            Alya huffed and threw her hands up. “If you die single,” she declared, stuffing her things in her bag. “It won’t be for my lack of trying, ok?”

            Marinette grinned and shook her head. “Come on, the boys will be waiting for us.”

            They met down in the lobby, Adrien and Nino in some intense debate about the current football stats of the French and Belgium teams.

            “—and when they get to the cup, you’re going to see what I mean,” Nino was saying. Adrien opened his mouth but whatever he was going to say cut off when he saw the girls. He nudged his buddy and Nino stuttered when he saw Alya.

            “You look pretty,” he managed. She grinned, eyes sparkling and she snagged his arm.       “C’mon! I want to go see---” Marinette let them wander ahead, suddenly shy all over again.

            “You know,” he said conversationally. “I really liked the Marinette that doesn’t put up with Chat Noir’s crap.”

            She squeaked and blushed, looking down. “I know. It’s just…” she glanced up with a wince. “I can’t believe after the way I teased you that you…” she trailed off, feeling lame. He chuckled and then threw a casual arm around her shoulder.

            “You’re still you, partner. Purrfectly amazing in all ways.”

            She chuckled but for the first time since he’d known her, she didn’t push his arm off.

            “I think you’re pretty amazing yourself,” she admitted as they meandered behind Alya and Nino. Adrien blushed, then blinked, remembering something.

            “By the way, what was it you were stumbling over yourself to tell me?”

            It was her turn to blush.

            “Um. I… I was going to say that…” She slowed and stopped so that there would be some space between Nino and Alya. She took a deep breath. Being brave had paid off in big ways last night and she was willing to try one more time. She looked up, meeting his eyes.

            “I don’t know who that girl you like is,” she said, her fingers knotting together in front of her. Adrien froze at the mention, focused on her face now, hanging on her words, “But I wanted you to know that I… Adrien, I like you. I have had a really big crush for a really long time and I… I just wanted you to know.”

            He blinked. Silence. Marinette counted in her head, counted breaths as he computed what she’d said. At the sixth exhale his face broke into one of those smiles, the smiles that brought warmth into a cold room. The smile that had shone through the rain as he’d offered her an umbrella. Before she could compute, he’d leaned forward, catching her cheek and brushing his lips against hers.

            Time stopped and only his lips and the stuttering of her heart existed. When he pulled back, she realized in numb shock that she hadn’t closed her eyes; that she was still staring.

            Adrien brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes, his own intense, the space between them a bubble that blocked out the rest of what was going on around them.

            “The girl I liked? She turned out to be you this whole time.” He leaned back, a soft smile on his lips. Marinette stood stunned.

            “As Ladybug? I…” she shook her head and stepped back, confused. “Wait, you were serious all those times?”

            Adrien nodded, eager, “Yeah! I was! But you know,” he rubbed the back of his neck, “You seemed like you weren’t really feeling it so…”

            “Because I was too busy liking YOU,” she said, hands covering her mouth in mortification.

            Adrien grinned again and reached forward, dragging her over to his side, his arm draped with a bit more proprietary strength.

            “Marinette, I have never been so glad to hear that the girl I liked was in love with someone else.”

            #

            Alya glanced behind herself and nudged Nino.

            “Five Euros.”

            He glanced back and rolled his eyes.

            “Man, he couldn’t wait until the concert?”

            “I accept my payment in caffeine too,” she said, winking at him through her glasses. He smirked and tapped her nose. “And here I was hoping that you’d be paying ME in free lingerie sho—ow!”

            “We’re in public!” she snapped.

            “Worth it,” he wheezed. Alya rolled her eyes but didn’t jab him again when he wrapped an arm around her.

            One more couple in love on the streets of Brussels, one more group of teenagers on their first abroad trip. Just another miraculous journey in life.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And complete!  
> I am probably going to be working on a sequel some time in the future. Thank you everyone for the kind words of encouragement! It's been a delight to create this fic for the Miraculous fandom.
> 
> Come follow me over at miraculoushistorien.tumblr.com for more fanfic news and livebloggings of Miraculous episodes. :D

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on Tumblr as Miraculoushistorien 
> 
> Updates every Saturday


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